Vacuum tube socket



Jan. 24, 1950 R. c. LARSON 2,495,267

VACUUM TUBE SOCKET Filed July 26, 1946 F'IG.2.

INVENTOR.

RICHARD C. L'ARSON Patented Jan. 24, 1950 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE- 7 Claims.

(Granted under the act of March 3, 1883, as amended April 30-, 1928; 37(1 0. G. 757) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, Without the payment to me. of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to sockets for vacuum tubes and is particularly adapted for use with miniature type tubes.

One. of the objects of this invention is to provide a socket which will provide even contact pressure on each pin.

Another object is to provide such a socket which adjusts itself automatically to irregularities of the pins and thereby avoids strain.

Still another object is to provide such a socket whose contact resistance is low.

Still further objects including the provisions of a socket which permits easy insertion and withdrawal of the tube from the socket and whose contacts are relatively unaffected by vibration and in which socket noise is substantially completely eliminated.

These and other objects will become apparent in the specification and in the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure l is a plan view of the socket;

Figure 2 is an elevational view of the socket;

Figure 3 is an elevational cross section of the socket shown in Figures 1 and 2 and is taken along section line 33 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a view of one of the contacts employed in the socket;

Figure 5 is a sectional view in elevation of a modification.

An efficient socket for miniature and loctal type tubes presents many problems. Physical dimensions of the pins and their separations are small, necessitating close manufacturing tolerances. The tube pins of these frail tubes are sealed directly into the glass base of the socket resulting in ready failure of the tube as a result of stress appearing at the pins. The pins have very small dimensions, often resulting in uneven contact within the socket. In attempting to provide good contact between the pin and the contact member in the socket a powerful spring action is ordinarily employed rendering the tube diflicult to insert and withdraw from the socket, particularly the latter, after a few months under ordinary conditions of use.

Referring now to Figures 1 and 2 there is shown a tube base generally indicated at ll] having a cap piece l2 provided with mounting openings M in ears 16. Member l2 incloses and retains a socket body it of methyl-methacrylate resin or equivalent low conductivity material. The cen- 2, ter of body 18: is provided with the usual. receiving sleeve 29.

The socketv body is also provided with a plurality of holes 22 arranged circularly around the center for receiving the tube pins, and contact members 24 are arrangedwithin the holes in the manner shown. Each contact 24 includes an elongated conducting portion 26 and a lug porticn 28 as shown in Figure. 4, and is held in the socket body by means of a resilient ring 39 of rubber or the like.

Figure 3 shows the socket body in vertical cross section and the action of rubber ring 30, contact 2 and a tube pin 32 is clearly shown. Hole 22 is large enough in diameter to permit the grooved portion of contact 24 to enter loosely into the hole. As shown in Figure 3 this placement of the grooved portion of the contact permits the bent part of the contact 26 to abut against the outer surface of the socket body with lug portion 28 projecting downwardly, and with part of the upper portion of the lug resting within annular groove 3. Rubber ring 30 is placed over the assembly by first stretching same, aligning it about groove 34 and permitting the ring to contract.

In the modification of Figure 5, mounting member I2 is shown engaging ring 30 at the outer periphery of the latter. This is particularly advantageous in that a shock mounted socket is thereby provided without the use of additional parts. Ring 30 acts to hold the contacts in place as well as to support the mounting member.

As is obvious from the drawing any lack of alignment or parallelism in the tube pin or any reasonable amount of bending of the pin does not aifect the functioning of the socket inasmuch as each contact is freely suspended and individually sprung due to the action of ring 30 with the absence of stress on the tube pins. Failure due to breakage at the glass base of the tube is substantially completely eliminated while contact between the pins and the members is always maintained.

Thus, I have provided a simple and highly efflcient tube socket which may be manufactured easily and economically, and while I have disclosed only two embodiments of my invention it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that many changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention.

I claim:

1. In a tube socket, an insulating body, pin receiving openings in said, body, an annular groove in said body communicating with said pin receiving openings, contact members in said pin receiving openings, each contact member having a contact portion and a portion projecting outwardly of the body through said annular groove and provided further with lug means at the end of the projecting portion, a resilient ring of nonconducting material in said groove, said ring pressing on said contact members to force said contact members into contacting position.

2. In a tube socket, an insulating body, pinreceiving openings in said body, an annular groove in said body communicating with said pin-receiving openings, contact members in said pin-receiving openings, said contact members having a contact portion and a portion projecting outwardly of the body through said annular groove and provided further with lug means at the end of the projecting portion, a resilient ring of nonconducting material in said groove, said ring pressing on said contact members to force said contact member-s into contacting position, a support for said socket comprising a flange member yieldably supported by said resilient ring whereby the shocks communicated to a tube mounted thereon will be materially lessened.

3. In a tube socket, an insulating body, pin receiving openings in said body, said openings being appreciably larger than the tube pins to be inserted therein, an annular groove in said body communicating with said pin receiving openings, contact members in said pin receiving openings, each contact member having a contact portion and a portion projecting outwardly of the body through said annular groove and provided further with lug means at the end of the projecting portion, said contact portions being disposed to press against the lower end of said tube pins, a resilient ring of nonconducting material in said groove, said ring pressing on said contact members to force said contact members into contacting position.

4. In a tube socket, an insulating body, pin receiving openings in said body, an annular groove in said body communicating with said pin receiving openings, contact members each having a contact portion and a projecting lug portion, said contact portions being inserted through said groove into cooperating relation with said pin receiving openings, a resilient ring of non-conducting material in said groove, said ring pressing on said contact members to force said contact members into contacting position.

5. In a tube socket, an insulating body, pin receiving openings in said body, an annular groove in said body communicating with said pin receiving openings, contact members each having a contact portion and a projecting lug portion, said contact portions being located in said groove, a resilient ring of non-conducting material in said groove, said ring pressing on said contact portions to force said contact portions into cooperating relation with said pin receiving openings.

6. In a tube socket, an insulating body, pin receiving openings in said body, said openings being appreciably larger than the .pins to be inserted therein, an annular groove in said body communicating with the lower portions of said pin receiving openings, contact members each having a contact portion and a projecting lug portion, said contact portions being located in said groove, a resilient ring of non-conducting material in said groove, said ring pressing on said contact portions to force said contact portions into cooperating relation with said pin receiving openings.

7. In a tube socket, an insulating body, pin receiving openings in said body, said openings being appreciably larger than the pins to be inserted therein, an annular groove in said body communicating with said pin receiving openings, contact members each having a contact portion and a projecting lug portion, said contact portions being located in said groove and disposed to press against the lower end of said tube pins, a resilient ring of nonconducting material in said groove, said ring pressing on said contact portions to force said contact portions into cooperating relation with said pin receiving openings, and a flange member pressure fitted to said resilient ring and yieldably supporting said socket.

RICHARD C. LARSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,892,943 Geyer Jan. 3, 1933 2,024,547 Strongson Dec. 17, 1935 2,417,153 Darr Mar. 11, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 236,333 Great Britain July 9, 1925 249,386 Great Britain Mar. 25, 1926 262,226 Great Britain Dec. 9, 1926 301,505 Great Britain Jan. 2, 1930 307,352 Great Britain Jan. 9, 1930 

